The Higgs Boson Blog

Made in England

by Higgs Boson • 17 Jan, 2022

For some strange reason I feel uncomfortable with the title 'Made in England' - I've been brainwashed into thinking that it's a phrase only used by racists and bigots. Brexit certainly brings into sharp relief that which has largely been ignored - making stuff and methods of manufacturing. A while back my wife wanted to send a gift to a relative in Japan; she wanted something that was specifically 'Made in England'. Our search went on for days and much to our dismay almost everything was, well, made elsewhere basically. She was very disappointed, as was I. This negative experience was not helped when I casually asked a shop assistant "got anything made in England"? It seemed this question was almost deemed to be slightly racist - why? Comedian Stewart Lee famously made a joke about it, saying that a taxi driver said to him "call yourself English these days and you get arrested and thrown in jail" to which Lee repeatedly replies "what, arrested, in jail"?' The taxi driver ends-up giving-in and has to admit he's wrong - the joke being an exaggeration for comic effect. However, as far as I can tell, that joke is now actually not far from reality. In Japan it's the exact opposite, although to be fair, a lot of stuff in their shops is also made in China or Korea, but it wasn't anywhere near as difficult to find something Made in Japan. Of course, they, the Japanese, are proud of their ability to make stuff, and rightly so. Anyway, I suppose we've known for some time that our manufacturing base has been lost, so perhaps I shouldn't be so shocked. In a way, Brexit has highlighted the issue of where stuff is manufactured. Cars for instance; its various component parts are made all over Europe and having to cross the channel 3 to 4 times before final assembly only to be exported back to Europe. It's hard to see how this chimes with the alleged sentiments of the Paris Climate Change accord, that President Trump gave the finger to. And what sort of country can't even make its own sandwiches without recourse to foreign interference? I have purchased the odd sandwich from various Supermarkets and I thought, in my naivety, that they were built onsite, or at least in some shed down the road, but no - I had no idea just how pathetic Britain has become. It would appear that we are totally dependant on the EU. Of course, to an ardent Europhile this is all par for the course, perfectly normal, music to their ears bla bla - but to those of us with only the smallest semblance of national pride left, it is a source of acute embarrassment mixed with a realisation of the sheer insanity of it all. There is now such a gulf between those who believe in the EU and those who do not, the divide has manifested itself in what I like to call a Tower of Babel syndrome - everyone talking a different language and nothing, as far as I can tell, is going to bridge that chasm. Whatever your view 'Made in England' is now a thing of the past and, as far as I am concerned it's a very sad state of affairs indeed. I recall my grandfather having a huge sense of national pride about the quality of almost anything Made in England. To him, it was a benchmark of excellence. Unfortunately, it would appear that politicians have sold us down the river to a bunch of unelected corporate bureaucrats in Brussels - whose main purpose in life is to spread the work about at the behest of the multi-nationals - companies, who wouldn't actually exist were it not for the efforts of people like my grandfather. Higgs Boson

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